St John the Baptist Ferntree Gully Newsletter

We are extremely excited to announce that our new building is scheduled to open on Monday 11th August. We look forward to our Prep - Year 2 students commencing in their new classrooms in Week 4. Throughout Week 3 classes will be able to visit our new building for a tour and to familiarise themselves with the building and landscaped areas. As a school we are enormously blessed to have such wonderful facilities for our students to learn, thrive and flourish in. Further movement of our Year 3/4 students, Performing Arts program, Library and OHSC will also occur over the coming weeks. To have the additional space for all our programs to thrive is truly wonderful for our community.

This outcome has been achieved through wonderful support from Father Thomas and the SJB Parish, Crosier Scott Architects, Baxter Building and MACS. We are incredibly grateful to all for the strong partnerships and collaboration to achieve such an outstanding outcome.

Families will have received an Operoo notification of our new ways of operation. This information provides updates in relation to building access and car parking. We ask all families to familiarise themselves with this information. The new operation norms will commence from Monday 4th August.

This is an exciting time for us as a school. We warmly welcome families who would like the opportunity to walk through the building to take a walk through on Thursday 7th August from 9:00-9:45am or 2:30 - 3:10pm.

This is an exciting time for us as a school.

We thank our entire community for their ongoing support throughout this time.

Congratulations to our Year 5/6 mixed netball team who participated in Dandenong Ranges Division last Tuesday 29th July. The students were outstanding in their division and were successful in making it through to the Eastern Metro Region. We are enormously proud of our team in achievements, sportsmanship and team work. Congratulations on an outstanding achievement.

We thank Mr John Mitchell for his coaching and support of our SJB netball team.

We have had a great response to the FREE cricket clinics which will be happening at SJB over the next few weeks. It is not too late to register your daughter. We have 46 responses so it will be a fantastic event.   If you have previously stated your interest in these clinics can you please register using this link. 

https://www.playhq.com/cricket-australia/register/8c3eab

 Any issues please contact John Mitchell straight away.

jmitchell@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au

Please mark in your calendars Monday 18th August for this term’s Closure Day.

Ms Melissa Lynch has been successfully appointed to role of Be You consultant at Headspace. Headspace is an organisation that supports young people in the area of mental health and wellbeing.  Melissa’s appointment to the role of Be You is a wonderful achievement and career opportunity. 

Whilst we will be sad to farewell Melissa, we are always pleased to support our staff to take further progression in their careers. Melissa will be a wonderful asset to the team at Headspace as she shares her expertise as an educator and wellbeing leader across many schools in Melbourne including MACS. We wish Melissa well as she embarks on her new role. Congratulations Melissa, we wish you every success in your new endeavour.

We have been most fortunate to appoint Mrs Chantelle Santamaria to the classroom teaching position on Monday and Tuesdays with Mrs Amanda Heidenrijk. Chantelle is a highly experienced teacher with expertise in the junior school and the Vision for Instruction. We look forward to welcoming Chantelle to St John the Baptist School and we know that she will be a wonderful addition to our team. 

Melissa will conclude her teaching allocation in 1/2HL on Tuesday 12th August and we look forward to welcoming Chantelle on Monday 18th August. Chantelle will collaborate with Melissa and Amanda over the coming weeks to ensure a complete and thorough induction and handover.

Families will receive their Term 3 Level Newsletters today. The level newsletters include possible additional home activities for families to participate in. These activities are aligned to the Learning and Teaching and curriculum coverage for Term 3. They are designed to provide family insight and opportunity to enhance the Learning and Teaching being delivered throughout the term. These suggestions are completely optional for families to participate in.

Nightly reading from Prep - Year 6 is a requirement. Creating a love of reading for our students is a primary focus across the school.

We are most excited to meet our incoming 2026 Prep families and welcome them to St John the Baptist this week.  Meeting our new families and commencing our partnership with our parents and students ensures that we continue to extend a sense of community and welcome to all. Exciting times ahead.

If there are families who have not yet submitted their 2026 enrolment forms we ask families to do so as we now commence preparations for 2026.

We look forward to this term’s Inform and Empower Digital Safety sessions. Students in Year 1-6 will participate in their sessions over the coming weeks. We encourage families to discuss the sessions at home.

This week we were thrilled to welcome staff from Bunnings Scoresby, who generously donated a wonderful selection of plants to our school. Even more impressive, their team volunteered their time to help our students plant them in our gardens! With the addition of new lemon, lime and mandarin trees, our students are excited to watch our mini orchard - and their learning grow over time. It has been heart-warming to see so many students willingly give up their playtime to help with planting, a true sign of their pride in our school and care for our environment. We are incredibly grateful to the Bunnings Scoresby team for digging in and growing our school community spirit!

The SJB School Disco was once again a wonderful event where our students danced the night away.  The students thoroughly enjoyed the evening and were outstanding in the manner in which they participated in the night. Thank you to all for such a fun evening.

We thank the P & F Disco team for their organisation of the evening. The disco was a terrific community event for all.

We are seeking to further enhance the SJB Website for prospective families. Another way to enhance the website is to publish testimonials either in written form or via video recording from any families who would be willing to provide a testimonial.  If your family would be interested in providing a testimonial please feel free to email Ursula DeCorrado or Kelli Johnston.

udecorrado@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au or kjohnston@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au 

The Second Hand Uniform Shop will be open on Wednesday afternoons from 2:45pm.  Families may purchase second hand items for $5 per item. 

Families donating items are asked to ensure that items are delivered washed and in good condition.

Enquiries in regards to second hand items may be sent to -uniform@sjferntreegully.catholic.edu.au

Please note: All winter windcheaters have been topped up with washed clean windcheaters.  Families looking to purchase these items may inquire with the second hand uniform shop. 

We request that families clearly label student clothing items to ensure that items are able to be returned to students. An iron on label or permanent recording of student names is highly recommended as these remain on items for the long term.

A big thank you to Janice Stiglich for her work washing and sorting the second hand uniform shop.

Year 5 families are now able to place orders for Year 6 Commemorative Jackets and Polos through Beleza Uniforms. To ensure that students receive their items in February families are required to place their orders by Friday 8th August.

Please see below instructions on how to place your order.

Wishing everyone a great week.

Kelli Johnston

Term 3

August

6th - Mater Christi & St Joseph's Production

6th - Inform & Empower Year 1/2

8th - St Mary of the Cross Feast Day

11th - Year 3/4 Excursion to Melbourne Museum

12th - Prep 100 Days of School

13th - Inform & Empower Year 5/6

15th - Feast of the Assumption Mass @ 11am

18th - School Closure Day - Team Teach

22nd - Assembly 2:45pm - 3/4RS presenting

25th - Year 1/2 Excursion to Cranbourne Botanical Gardens

29th - Assembly 2:45pm - 5/6GM presenting

September

2nd - Father's Day Stall

3rd - 9:15am Year 1/2 Level Mass

3rd - 7:00pm School Advisory Council Meeting

4th - District Athletics - Knox Athletics

5th - Father's Day Breakfast

7th - Father's Day

11th - Year 3/4 Camp

12th - Year 3/4 Camp

17th - Division Athletics

17th - SJB Art Show

18th - SJB Art Show

18th - Year 5/6 Level Mass

19th - Footy Day

19th - Term 3 Concludes @ 2:00pm

Below is a current stock list. We have very few Size 8 and Size 10 items. If you have any official SJB uniform items in clean, good condition that your child/ren no longer wear, donating them to the 2nd Hand Uniform Shop would be much appreciated. Donations can be left at the office, when convenient for you. 

Janice

Canteen orders can be placed via http://www.flexischools.com.au

Orders must be placed no later than 7.30am on the Wednesday or Friday.

Friday August 8th

Maxine Schimizzi

Amy Chan

Friday August 15th

Katrina Horne

More helpers please

Friday August 22nd

Cassie Croning

Nelson Serrao

Claire Lewis

We are calling on all young people to become altar servers.   This ministry is open to all in our parish Year 4 and above who have received their First Holy Communion.  Training will be provided for those joining this special ministry as well as a refresher for our current young servers.  Please contact the parish office:  marymakarucha@stjohnthebaptist.net.au or the Parish Office on 9758 1029 with your interest or if you would like to have further information.

To highlight the importance of involving youth, see a reflection from the Holy Father about his time as a young altar server and how that experience shaped his Catholic identity during his childhood in Chicago. It’s worth a read: Pope Leo: Dialogues with Children – Building Bridges from an Early Age